SpotHero
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Parking services, Online marketplace |
| Founded | 2011 |
| Founder | Mark Lawrence, Jeremy Smith |
| Headquarters | Chicago , United States |
Area served | United States, Canada |
Key people | Larry Kiss (joined shortly after founding) |
| Products | Online parking marketplace, SpotHero for Business, SpotHero IQ |
Number of employees | 22 (2013) |
| Website | spothero |
SpotHero functions as an online parking marketplace that links drivers with a variety of parking options, including lots, garages, and valet services, accessible via its mobile application and website. Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, the company operates across more than 300 cities throughout the United States and Canada.
Initial Development
Established in 2011 by Mark Lawrence and Jeremy Smith, with Larry Kiss joining shortly thereafter, SpotHero began as a peer-to-peer platform facilitating the rental of private parking spaces. It later transitioned to collaborating directly with parking operators and garage providers.
In December 2012, the company raised $2.5 million in venture capital funding from investors such as Battery Ventures and 500 Startups while serving markets including Milwaukee and Chicago. Further financing rounds followed, including $4.5 million in 2014—which brought new board members from LinkedIn and Match.com—$20 million in Series B during 2015, and $30 million in Series C by July 2017. By September 2018, total funding had climbed to $68 million. In August 2019, SpotHero secured a $50 million Series D round led by Macquarie Capital, increasing its cumulative investment to $118 million.
Expansion and Development
From 2011 to 2013, the workforce expanded from five to twenty-two employees, alongside entry into seven markets such as Chicago and New York City, where the company established a local office. By August 2015, SpotHero had added five additional cities including Denver and San Francisco. The company entered Los Angeles in July 2016 and further expanded into thirteen more cities by January 2017, incorporating locations like Austin and Miami. By 2020, SpotHero ranked as the fifteenth-largest privately held consumer marketplace in North America, servicing over 300 cities with a network of more than 7,000 garages.
In March 2017, SpotHero introduced SpotHero for Business, a platform designed for corporate clients to streamline parking expense management. Additionally, it launched a complimentary developer platform allowing integration of parking reservations into third-party applications. A strategic alliance with WageWorks enabled customers to utilize pre-tax dollars for parking payments.
The company received notable industry accolades in 2018 when it was featured on Time magazine’s list of 50 Genius Companies influencing future innovation. That year also saw SpotHero invest in urban infrastructure by acquiring 500 Waze beacons for Chicago’s Department of Transportation to improve GPS precision downtown. Furthermore, it prepared approximately 500 Chicago parking facilities for autonomous vehicle compatibility through collaborations with Google Assistant and Hertz.
In March 2019, SpotHero teamed up with transit application Moovit to provide off-street parking options near transit centers in San Francisco, addressing regional congestion challenges. By June of the same year, a partnership with Waze—owned by Google—merged navigation services with parking solutions to enhance user convenience.
Early in 2020, the company unveiled SpotHero IQ, an intelligent pricing tool that empowers garage operators to adjust rates dynamically based on real-time analytics, optimizing revenue streams and operational effectiveness.
Acquisitions
SpotHero expanded its West Coast presence in April 2015 by acquiring ParkPlease, a San Francisco-based peer-to-peer parking marketplace.
In April 2017, the acquisition of Baltimore-based Parking Panda—a provider specializing in event and service parking—allowed SpotHero to extend operations into Canada and increase its reservable parking inventory beyond 5,000 locations.
Further solidifying its Canadian market share, SpotHero acquired Toronto’s Rover Parking in November 2020, adding thousands of new parking facilities to its platform.
See also
External links
- Online businesses in the United States
- Chicago-based companies
- Privately owned U.S. companies
- Parking service providers
- Transportation firms founded in 2011
- Web platforms launched in 2011
- 2011 establishments in Illinois
- IOS applications
- Android applications
- U.S. companies founded in 2011
- American companies established in 2011
- Companies of the United States by year of establishment